Monday, June 20, 2011

Collective Nouns.......

We are all familiar with the names of certain groups of animals.  For  example, a "pack" of dogs, a "herd" of cows, a "flock" of birds, a"school" of fish are all well-known collective nouns that we use all the time.

But I'll bet you are not familiar with many other names for groups of certain animals.......such as:

---A GROUPING of aardvarks
---A CONGREGATION of alligators
---A SHREWDNESS of apes
---An ARRANGEMENT of armadillos
---A TROOP of baboons
---A SLEUTH of bears
---A SOUNDER of boars
---A RABBLE of  butterflies
---A COALITION of cheetahs
---A QUIVER of cobras
---An INTRUSION of cockroaches
---A BASK of crocodiles
---A MURDER of crows
---A GULP of cormorants
---A TEAM of dolphins
---A COTE of doves
---A CLUSTER of dragonflies
---A CONVOCATION of eagles
---A GANG of elk
---A GROSS of falcons
---A BUSINESS of ferrets
---A LEASH of foxes
---A COLONY of frogs
---A JOURNEY of giraffes
---A GAGGLE of geese
---A HORDE of hamsters
---An ARRAY of hedgehogs
---A BLOAT of hippotamus
---A CACKLE of hyenas
---A SHADOW of jaguars
---A MOB of kangaroos
---A COLONY of koalas
---An EXALTATION of larks
---A PLOT of lemurs
---A LEAP of leopards
---A RISK of lobsters
---A TIDING of magpies
---A CLAN of meerkats
---A LABOUR of moles
---A SCOURGE of mosquitoes
---A BARREN of mules
---A WATCH of nightingales
---A ROMP of otters
---A PARLIAMENT of owls
---A PARTY of peafowl
---A SCOOP of pelicans
---A ROOKERY of penguins
---A PUDDLE of platypus
---A PRICKLE of porcupines
---A WARREN of rabbits
---A NURSERY of raccoons
---A CONGRESS of ravens
---A CRASH of rhinoceros
---A MAELSTROM of salamanders
---A FRENZY of sharks
---A SURFEIT of skunks
---A ROUNDUP of squid
---An INTRUSION of stinkbugs
---A STREAK of tigers
---A KNOT of toads
---A CREAM of turkeys
---A BALE of turtles
---A SNEAK of weasels
---A WISDOM of wombats

Well, these are just a sampling.  Colorful, no?

19 comments:

  1. Oh what goodness! What I don't learn blogging!! So interesting...

    ReplyDelete
  2. What an excellent list, they say we learn something everyday well from your post I learnt alot.

    Have a good day.
    Yvonne.

    ReplyDelete
  3. some of those are just too funny! a rabble of butterflies?! sounds rough! i knew murder, gaggle and warren and that was it!

    ReplyDelete
  4. You beat me to it, Clint. After reading Cindy's post I remembered that a former home care patient of mine gave me an index card with what he titled "Nouns of a Multitude" typed on it. One of which was "a murder of crows". I have it in my file somewhere and thought, "my, what a good idea for a blog post later today." Glad you beat me to it, Clint. I'll find something else to post. Enjoy your day.
    Ananymous aka Carol B.
    P.S. hakuna matata

    ReplyDelete
  5. A large group of in-laws= a pain in the a$$

    ReplyDelete
  6. Very interesting, but I'd love to know how the identifiers were assigned. I hope you have a great day. Blessings...Mary

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yes, indead. Have a nice week.
    Greetings Sabine

    ReplyDelete
  8. love these! "a prickle of porcupines" =)

    thanks for sharing.

    i just came up with one - a slobber of sloths.=)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Amazing! A "congregation" of alligators? lol Yikes! I'd rather not sit in that congregation!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Love this post, I have always found these collective nouns to be so interesting.

    There must not be a special collective noun for a group of people:

    A crowd of people.

    A mass of people.

    A congregation of people would fit people better than alligators!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I knew a few only because my parents used to play a game with them. I always thought a murder of crows should be a book title.
    Arkansas Patti

    ReplyDelete
  12. These are all like.... real...???

    oh wow...

    Thanks for sharing though!
    Leontien

    ReplyDelete
  13. Clint, While I had heard of a few of these, most of them were "news to me." :)

    WHERE did you find them all? Lots of fun.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Very interesting! Gosh, who knew?

    ReplyDelete
  15. Yes, that was really interesting. Very often we hear sentences and phrases but we do not think about it.

    It really makes fun to read your blog.

    Thanks Clint!!

    Have a beautiful day and a lot of greetings

    ReplyDelete
  16. Cool man, oops I am still thinking of Blessings for the elements post.
    I love this Clint imagination makes the world go round.B

    ReplyDelete
  17. A congress of ravens, eh? So fitting in so many ways :P

    ReplyDelete
  18. "A MURDER of crows" and "A NURSERY of raccoons" are so cool!
    Thanks for sharing, you make my day! :)

    ReplyDelete

---